Harry Potter now available on eBook, audiobook formats (and powered by Sony)

It has taken a while, but the Harry Potter books are now available in a digital format – eBook or as a digital audio book. And surprisingly, despite partnering up with Sony – known for installing some restrictive practices on their content, Rowling’s books will be made available not only as an EPUB format, but it will also be available on the Amazon Kindle, Google Play and on Barnes and Noble’s NOOK stores.

The digital audiobooks will be in MP3 – and will be broken by chapter and all contained in one single zipped file. Arguably, you can say that they should have used M4B file format, since you can at least “bookmark” the last spot – but, not all audio players support that file format, unlike MP3.

In addition, while English (UK and US) are initially supported, JK Rowling’s Pottermore site will also release other language editions of the series – including French, German, Spanish and Italian. German and Italian digital audiobooks have also been confirmed in their little FAQ.

There are also some caveats – such as the fact that your eBooks will have a watermark (“This allows us to track and respond to possible copyright misuse”) and that you’ll only be allowed to download these books up to eight times. Yes, eight. After the eight, then you’ll need to buy another copy again – though, to be fair, since there are no limit on how to use your downloads, you can just copy-paste it to other computers.

The first three books are available for US$7.92/£4.99; while the last four in the series are priced at US$11.10/£6.99. The entire collection, however, is available for US$61.34/£38.64. Digital audiobooks are bit more expensive.